Most people outside Korea met Solo Leveling through the anime, so it is worth saying plainly where the story came from. It began as a web novel by Chugong, then became a webtoon that ran on KakaoPage from March 4, 2018 to December 29, 2021, ending its main story at chapter 179. A side story of 21 chapters followed from January to May 31, 2023. Art came from Jang Sung-rak of Redice Studio; Gi So-ryeong wrote the adaptation through chapter 92 and Hyeon-gun took over from chapter 93. The premise is a Korean fantasy staple: gates open onto dungeons full of monsters, โhuntersโ who awaken with powers clear them for a living, and Sung Jin-woo is the weakest hunter alive until a System only he can see starts handing him levels.
One fact belongs in any introduction to this series. Jang Sung-rak, the artist, died of a cerebral hemorrhage on July 23, 2022, seven months after the main story ended. He was 37, and the funeral was held privately at his familyโs request. The side story was drawn by other artists at the same studio. A sequel, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, began serialization on KakaoPage and Kakao Webtoon in August 2024, following Sung Su-ho, the son of Jin-woo and Cha Hae-in.
The anime is animated by A-1 Pictures in Japan. Season one ran 12 episodes from January 7 to March 31, 2024, and season two, subtitled Arise from the Shadow, ran 13 episodes from January 5 to March 30, 2025. At the Crunchyroll Anime Awards held on May 25, 2025 at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa in Tokyo, the series was nominated in 13 of 23 categories and won nine, including the top prize, Anime of the Year. Kakao Entertainment said that month that it was the first Korean title to take both the top honor and the most awards at the ceremony, and put the combined worldwide readership of the novel and webtoon at 14.3 billion views. In Japan, Piccoma carried the webtoon from March 2019 to January 2022.
Two adaptations make this a good moment to pick the series back up. The first is a film: on July 3, 2026, at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, Crunchyroll and Aniplex announced Solo Leveling: Beyond the System, a theatrical anime picking up after season two. A-1 Pictures returns to animate, Tao Tajima directs, Tomoko Sudo continues as character designer, and Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Netmarble, D&C Media, and Kakao Piccoma are co-producing. The second is live action: in July 2025 Netflix confirmed a Korean live-action series with Byeon Woo-seok as Sung Jin-woo, Lee Hae-jun and Kim Byung-seo directing, and Kakao Entertainment and SANAI PICTURES producing. Korean outlets reported in August 2025 that Han So-hee would play Cha Hae-in, and in August 2026 that Bae Sung-woo had joined the cast. Filming ran through 2026, and neither project has a release date yet.
You can start the webtoon from chapter one on KakaoPage, or read it in English on Tapas and Tappytoon. If you stopped at the end of season two, everything that comes next is already drawn in the back half of the original. If you finished the original years ago, the film will be new material rather than a recap. And if game-style stat windows popping up mid-fight sound like your kind of thing, the first chapter tells you within minutes whether the rest is too. (As of August 21, 2026)
